The Pauper's Prince

*Fallback*

"I'm okay, just a few broken ribs and some internal bleeding. What took you so long Nine?"

Nine turned around to see who spoke and saw Fluke.

"Well, at least that is what he would say if he can speak." Fluke continued.

Nine took a deep breath and walked towards him. "Nine Kornchid." Nine extended his hand.

Fluke stared at the hand and stared back at Nine with disgust. "Yes, I know who you are." Fluke then walked to Chen's side and held his cold hand "he's still beautiful."

"He is, too bad you didn't see that last week." Nine said.

Fluke dragged Nine out of the room to the hallway.

"What is your problem?!" Nine whispered to Fluke.

"My problem is you coming in to his life and causing this!" Fluke motioning to Chen. "You caused this! You caused this!"

Nine thought that everything Fluke said was right. It felt like he was cursed, that anyone he falls for will perish. Tears started to stream down Nine's eyes.

"And you still have the audacity to show your face here?!" Fluke screamed at Nine.

A hand flew to Fluke's face, stunning him. Nine looked for the owner of the hand and saw Wayo.

"How dare you?" Yo started to speak "how dare you when you started all of this?" Nine can see Yo tremble from every word. "It's your presence who should be questioned!"

Fluke averted his gaze and walked back into the room.

Nine felt numb. At the end of the day, if Chen didn't meet him, none of this should have happened. The first thing his instinct told him was to run and so he did. He can hear Yo calling his name but he ignored it.  He took a cab and asked the driver to drive.

"Where to?" The driver asked.

"Home... I'll give you directions." Nine answered.

Nine found himself in front of Mrs. Kim's room. He softly knocked and Mr. Kim opened the door.

"What is wrong son?" He asked?

Nine broke down in the arms of his second father. He can't bear to say anything. Nine hanged on to the old man for dear life.

He allowed his tears to flow, tears of regret, of shame, of his pain he cannot speak of.

Nine's phone suddenly vibrated, it was a message from his father. He opened the message and what he saw made his shaken world rock a little further.

Nine, Ohm took his life. He grabbed a gun from one of the officers and shot himself.

Nine had to sit down. He felt the loss of a friend but also felt relief at the same time.

Quietly, he sent out a prayer and closed his eyes.

His head was buzzing, everything was a haze when he opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the bouquet of flowers by the bedside. He stared at it for a while, trying to remember what happened, where he was. He noticed Wayo was beside him, when the latter noticed that he's awake, Yo gave him a smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Where... is Nine?" Chen asked.